The pros and cons of beacons in Canadian retail environments

A new report from the Canadian Marketing Association and loyalty marketing program company LoyaltyOne indicated more Canadian shoppers are willing to use beacon technology but suggested marketers and retailers should be careful with using the technology.

Beacon technology allows retailers to detect mobile devices and engage in so-called background positioning of their products and services. Instead of having their brands limited to shelf displays, marketers and retailers are able to deliver personalized communications about products and campaigns to a shopper’s mobile device.

As many as 56% of shoppers surveyed admitted they used beacon technology at some point while shopping and about 80% of shoppers are aware of beacons and location-based service (LBS).

Marketers and retailers, however, should avoid going over using beacons and LBS, according to Michael Cohen, director of mobile API and analytics innovation at LoyaltyOne.

The study found the frequency of LBS is a leading reason why shoppers uninstall or opt-out of receiving beacon messages.

At the Amazon Web Service re:Invent 2015 infrastructure-as-a-service conference in Las Vegas, cloud vendors unpacked a bevy of new and enhanced products and services aimed at various verticals.

For example, CloudHealth Technologies offers a cloud management solution that provides users visibility as well as governance ability for cost, performance, availability, new service integration and security from a single, consolidated dashboard.

AppZero users can rapidly create containers from Windows server applications and “modernize” existing applications to a newer OS and infrastructure without building or reinstalling.

Lean, Scrum, Kanban, and Crystal are a just a few of the Agile flavors that have sprung up in the last decade following the introduction of the software and project management methodology that focuses on evolutionary development, early delivery and collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.

Agile adoption in the enterprise has raised the demand for IT professionals fluent in the methodology.

Here’s a brief slideshow that walks you through seven Agile-focused certifications worth looking into if you intend to take your career to the next level.

Smoked meats, European ambiance, and a lively nightlife scene are not the only reasons to visit Montreal this fall.

Over the next two months, business and technology executive will have the unique opportunity to soak up ideas from innovative entrepreneurs and prominent industry thought leaders as they speak about current trends, strategies, developments and challenges affecting their respective sectors during the Allstream Morning Trends sessions this season.

Have you ever thought of trains and vehicle sharing services when session initiation protocol (SIP) deployment options are discussed?

Keeping in mind that network technology should carry data swiftly, securely and flexibly, journalist Stefan Dubowsky was reminded by a recent Webinar on SIP and UCaaS of the real-world travel choices we make.

When David Stein, principal of Stein Technology Consulting discussed three potential architectures for SIP deployment, Dubowski was thinking public transit, private vehicles, and Ottawa’s VRTUCAR.